186 islam, politics and change
parties, but which was not formally part of the court judgment and not
registered in the register books.
The Divorce Survey also assessed the reasons why respondents had
not claimed their spousal post-divorce rights. Forty-six respondents
had not claimed spousal rights and 35 of them gave a reason for this.
The reasons for non-claiming can be divided into five categories. The
first category is ‘no need for support’. Nineteen respondents gave an
answer that can be put into that category. Seven answers can be put into
the category ‘I did not want to delay the divorce process’. Four answers
can be categorised as ‘I did not want to go through the trouble’. Four
respondents gave as a reason ‘the claim would not have been endorsed’.
Finally, in the category ‘others’, one of the respondents was in absentia
during the divorce process at the court.
A respondent whom I interviewed as part of the qualitative part of the
research provided insight into why she did not claim any post-divorce
rights. According to her, one of the clerks (panitera) who had assisted her
during the process had dissuaded her from claiming any post-divorce
rights:
There was a woman there, a clerk, she said it would be [a] long [process],
since it had to be arranged first with the husband, [to know] whether
he approved [to the claim] or not. We would have to meet each other
first to mediate how much [support] I would want. If we would differ
then it will become cumbersome. If there is no point of agreement, he
wants 300 and I want 500, the process will take much longer. It would
constantly have to be dealt with, [and I would have to go] back and
forth, back and forth [to the court].4.2 Child Support
The second post-divorce right I will deal with here is child support
(nafkah anak). In Indonesia, the father remains legally responsible for
the maintenance of his legal children, no matter who has custody over
them. Women can make child support claims in divorce cases filed by
themselves or their husbands.
In 2008, seven women, or 1.6 per cent of the total, claimed child
support. In 2009, the numbers are slightly lower, six child support claims
or 1.3 per cent. One must realise that those percentages are based on
the total number of couples that were divorced at the Islamic court of
Bulukumba. Of course, not all of them had children. Still, I think the
numbers will give a good indication of the number of women who make
child support claims, since in Indonesia it is normal to have children